Climate change poses a serious threat to the stability of our food systems world-wide. Crop losses due to insect pests, which can range from 10-20% of net primary productivity, are projected to increase with a warming climate. Parasitoid wasps, which kill their insect hosts to complete development, present a promising avenue by which pest populations can be managed without harming beneficial insects. Rebecca is a PhD candidate in the Whiteman lab at UC Berkeley. Her research characterizes a group of bacterial toxins that were horizontally transferred to the genomes of several insect lineages and now function in anti-parasitoid immune defenses. This research expands our understanding of innate immune responses to macroparasites and may also be used to inform biocontrol methods in the field.